Native Peoples of North America
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Native Peoples of North America Dr. Susan Stebbins SUNY Potsdam Native Peoples of North America Dr. Susan Stebbins 2013 Open SUNY Textbooks 2013 Susan Stebbins This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Published by Open SUNY Textbooks, Milne Library (IITG PI) State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454 Cover design by William Jones About this Textbook Native Peoples of North America is intended to be an introductory text about the Native peoples of North America (primarily the United States and Canada) presented from an anthropological perspective. As such, the text is organized around anthropological concepts such as language, kinship, marriage and family life, political and economic organization, food getting, spiritual and religious practices, and the arts. Prehistoric, historic and contemporary information is presented. Each chapter begins with an example from the oral tradition that reflects the theme of the chapter. The text includes suggested readings, videos and classroom activities. About the Author Susan Stebbins, D.A., Professor of Anthropology and Director of Global Studies, SUNY Potsdam Dr. Susan Stebbins (Doctor of Arts in Humanities from the University at Albany) has been a member of the SUNY Potsdam Anthropology department since 1992. At Potsdam she has taught Cultural Anthropology, Introduction to Anthropology, Theory of Anthropology, Religion, Magic and Witchcraft, and many classes focusing on Native Americans, including The Native Americans, Indian Images and Women in Native America. Her research has been both historical (Traditional Roles of Iroquois Women) and contemporary, including research about a political protest at the bridge connecting New York, the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation and Ontario, Canada, and Native American Education, particularly that concerning the Native peoples of New York. She currently is the Special Assistant to the President for Diversity at SUNY Potsdam, where she continues to teach Native American Studies. Reviewer’s Notes Native Peoples of North America is a groundbreaking new text for undergraduate introductory courses in Native American Studies. Dr. Susan Stebbins, the author, is a Native American scholar who is trained as a cultural anthropologist and specializes in Native American and Indigenous Studies. As such, she writes this accessible text from an anthropological perspective, carefully presenting basic concepts of cultural anthropology such as ethnography, kinship, fieldwork, demography, society, modes of subsistence, type of political organization, and assimilation, while using Native North American examples to illustrate and explain each point. This book could, therefore, be successfully used to teach Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at tribal colleges, as well as courses in Native American Studies at other colleges and universities. Clearly covering topics as the devastating influences of European- introduced diseases, the varying perspectives held by the colonial nations about Native people, indigenous religions, revitalization movements, federal Indian policies, and expressive culture, Stebbins draws on a wealth of examples from prehistoric sites to contemporary events to effectively tell the story of the hundreds of different societies making up what is known today as Native North America. While doing this, Stebbins does not treat Native North America or its peoples as isolates as has been done for generations in hegemonic discourse. Rather, she systematically places them within the context of world cultures in both time and space in order to dispel stereotypes and build multicultural understandings. Dr. Maureen Trudelle Schwarz, Professor, Anthropology, Syracuse University Open SUNY Textbook Peer Reviewer About Open SUNY Textbooks Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing infrastructure. The pilot launched in 2012, providing an editorial framework and service to authors, students and faculty, and establishing a community of practice among libraries. The first pilot is publishing 15 titles in 2013, with a second pilot to follow that will add more textbooks and participating libraries. Participating libraries in the 2012-2013 pilot include SUNY Geneseo, College at Brockport, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Fredonia, Upstate Medical University, and University at Buffalo, with support from other SUNY libraries and SUNY Press. For more information, please see: http://opensuny.org TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1 IN 1491 … 24 Chapter 2 ALL OUR RELATIONS 50 Chapter 3 RESOURCES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION 76 Chapter 4 STATUS, RANK AND POWER 112 Chapter 5 RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL BELIEFS 136 Chapter 6 IS THERE A WORD FOR ART? 163 Conclusions 190 References 196 Videos 211 Introduction The attempt to write any book, especially a textbook, about the histories and cultures of the indigenous peoples of what is now called North America is a daunting task. It is equivalent to writing a book about the histories and cultures of the peoples of Europe, though there are some differences. For example, it is readily accepted by both scientists and the general public that fully modern humans were in Europe well over 40,000 years ago. However, the hypothesis, based on archaeological sites in South America that fully modern humans were in the Americas 40,000 years ago is hotly debated. While there is evidence for hominid species (Homo hablis, Homo erectus, Neanderthals) in Europe as well as Asia and Africa, the skeleton remains of only fully modern humans, called Paleo-Indians, have been found in the Americas. While humans have not been in the Americas as long as in Africa (from whence all humans come), Europe or Asia, archaeological evidence shows that people have been in the Americas for at least over 12,000 years. The historical inquiry about human activity around the world is broken into two large categories: pre-historic and historic. The term proto-historic applies to a period of transition between the two. With the exception of societies like the Maya and Aztecs of Meso-America, who had written documents and historical accounts on monumental architecture well over 2,000 years ago, research about Native societies prior to 1492 is pre-historic. A number of techniques—geology, archaeology, botany, zoology, and the oral traditions of contemporary Native societies—are used to make hypotheses about their lives before historical documents were kept. Archaeologists and historians use historical categories that are unique to the Americas: Paleo-Indian, archaic, and formative. Paleo-Indian refers to the first migration of people to the Americas sometime prior to the last glaciation around 10,000 years ago. Archaic refers to the period from 8,000 BCE (before the common era) to 2,000 BCE when many but not all societies across the Americas developed horticulture and agriculture. The estimated development of horticulture and agriculture vary for different parts of the Americas. The formative stage refers to the period of 1,000 BCE to 500 CE 1 Native Peoples of North America Introduction (common era) in which, in addition to horticulture/agriculture, societies developed pottery, weaving, and permanent towns with ceremonial centers. These categories and dates were first postulated in the 1950s. Contemporary archaeological data now tells us that the estimated dates of these developments can be off by 1,000 years or more. Further, the original peoples of the Americas had technology such as pottery and weaving before they developed horticulturally, if they ever did. Such technologies are not dependent on horticulture or permanent settlements. So, while these time frames are not supported by current data, the terms Paleo-Indian, archaic, and formative are still used to describe the resources strategies of American indigenous peoples. In the Americas, a wide assortment of crops was grown, including, but not limited to: corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and several varieties of beans, chili peppers, and chocolate. Despite the popular media image of Indians hunting bison on horseback, by the time of European contact many, many Native Americans produced much of their food through horticulture (the domestication of some plants while still foraging, fishing and hunting) and agriculture. Societies in South America, Meso-America, and most of the eastern, mid-western, and southwestern parts of what is now the United States were prosperous horticultural and agricultural societies. The original inhabitants of the Americas developed horticultural/agriculture, a high level of technology, as well as ceremonial/spiritual life and expressive culture (the arts) without influence from Europe. The Americas were separated from Africa, Asia, and Europe (the Old World) by vast oceans. People may indeed have sailed those oceans hundreds of years before Columbus; or people may have crossed from the Americas to the Old World. There is little evidence for either hypothesis, and even less evidence that possible early explorers had any impact or influence on the people and societies they may have encountered. Another hypothesis is that during glacial eras people migrated over the ice-covered Arctic areas between northern Asia, Europe,